Flying Tigers

John Wayne's first war film was one of his best, a solid actioner with Wayne giving great presence as the leader of a fighter squadron doing battle against the Japanese invader over the skies of China in the dark days before the U.S. entry into World War II.

Wayne plays Jim "Pappy" Gordon, a variation on the many flinty-commander-with-heart-of-gold characters he would play in films to follow like "Sands Of Iwo Jima" and "Fighting Seabees." Gordon is less flinty than most of them, maybe because his men are volunteers or maybe because his girlfriend Brooke (Anna Lee) is stationed on the same airbase. While the Japanese take their toll on his men, Gordon's toughest job may be keeping peace in his squadron when smug gloryhog Woody Jason (John Carroll) arrives.

When I first saw "Flying Tigers" as a boy, the on-screen gore made the strongest impression. In those days, before pay television, it was something to see a Japanese pilot grab his face, blood oozing through his fingers. Times have changed, of course, but one is still impressed by the well-rendered dogfight sequences, for which Ted Lydecker was nominated for an Oscar. Though it's troubling to be entertained by what amounts to real images of people getting killed, director David Miller manages to incorporate actual combat footage very well into battle sequences that alternate with Lydecker miniature work and shots of actors in their cockpits, better than the more acclaimed director Nicholas Ray later did in another Wayne air war film, "Flying Leathernecks."

"Flying Tigers" contains one key historical inaccuracy: While assembled in the months before Pearl Harbor, the Tigers didn't see action until December 20, 1941. This is an important caveat, but the inaccuracy allows for one of the very first and best examples of that classic movie cliché, where a dramatic scene ends with a glimpse of a desk calendar showing the date "Dec. 7." The scene that follows is one of those Wayne moments that resonated especially in theaters in 1942 and still packs a punch now: Pappy alone by a radio, standing expressionless while a cigarette smolders in his fingers, listening to President Roosevelt declare war.

Neither Wayne's iconographic stature or final victory against the Japanese were sure things when "Flying Tigers" came out in 1942; we tend to take more for granted and give films like this less credit. Wayne was 35 and not a real soldier, yet he came to define the war effort for many. Judging from the way some comments here attack him as a straw dog for present U.S. war policy in Iraq, Wayne's potency as a symbol remains undimmed.

Climbing off his P-40 after an early mission, Wayne is shown a row of bullet holes on his fuselage. "Termites," he says laconically, before striding away.

I give a lot of credit here to Miller, who knew what he had in Wayne before anyone else did, and uses the actor's terse authority to great effect. Miller was making propaganda, yes, but effectively and sensitively: We see Chinese children victimized by war, including one shot of a wounded child crying after a bombing clearly modeled on a famous war photo of the period. Unlike other wartime films which went heavy on ethnic stereotyping, the Japanese are seen as skilled, ruthless adversaries who require resolve to face down.

The film does lose altitude at the end, when Wayne goes off on a hare-brained bombing mission and Carroll has a "why-we-fight" epiphany that rings rather hollow. Maybe it's because he's playing a heel, but I find Carroll hard to take, with his Clark Gable mannerisms and the way he seems to always play to the camera rather than the other actors. There's also a little too much melodrama between Wayne and Lee that feels out of place in a war film.

But "Flying Tigers" has weathered the years better than most films of its kind, and is a historic landmark both for its effective action scenes and its pioneering use of Wayne as cultural touchstone. More than 60 years later, it still packs a punch.

Yes it's a propaganda piece; yes it's a bit cheesy; yes it's not accurate. What did you expect it's a Republic film and made for entertainment in a very dark time of our history: the beginning of WW2 when things weren't going so well.There is also the issue of security. We couldn't afford to name names and be historically accurate without spilling the beans to our enemies. Imagine laying out the entire contingent, personal conflicts, equipment and order of battle just so you could say in the middle of a war that your got it historically accurate. You must view such films in that context and so Flying Tigers turns up pretty well. The flying sequences were nominated for Academy Awards and were great for that day and age.I was especially intrigued by the twin engine transport which turns out to be a failed one off design from the early 1930's which was used for ground shots and model shots. Here's the scoop from Wikipedia.

The transport was the XC-12 1933 with two 525hp Wright Cyclone engines; span: 55'0" length: 42'0" load: 3000#. It was an all-metal; triple biplane tail; *partly-retracting gear, which extended automatically when the throttle was closed. Funded by local Greek restaurateurs as a promotional aircraft, and constructed with help from University of California students. US patent #1,745,600 issued to Socrates H Capelis, of El Cerrito, in 1930 (a modified application for patent of the design with a half-span dorsal wing and two more engines appears in 1932). The main spar was bolted together, and much of the skin attached with P-K screws rather than rivets. These tended to vibrate loose, requiring tightening or replacing every few flights. Promotional tours were soon abandoned, and its career ended as a movie prop, appearing in ground roles* in several motion pictures ("Five Came Back" 1939, "Flying Tigers" 1942, others) before reportedly being scrapped c.1943. * Flying shots in films were of a model; the plane itself was grounded by the studio's insurance company.

Johnmcmd

Here is a movie straight out of the annals of World War Two. The Japanese Empire was sweeping through Asia and destroying large parts of mainland China. Few of their adversaries were able to stop them, but one unit made history, by encountering them over the skies of China. In 1940-41 General Claire Chennault formed a mercenary group of American Flighter pilots to combat the invading Japanese. The movie based on their exploits is called " Flying Tigers " and star's John Wayne as Capt. Jim Gordon. Although an America propaganda film, it was designed to stimulate America's involvement in the war. Later, it came to symbolize America's contribution to the multi-national effort to fight the Japanese. The movie is in Black and White, crude, coarse and blatantly patriotic. Still it gave a boost to morale at a time when things were not going well for the U.S. or China. As a result with the additional cast of John Carroll, Paul Kelly, Gordon Jones and Edmund MacDonald as 'Blackie Bales' the movie succeeds in creating a rousing yarn of heroic young men and the niche they created over the Asian skies. ****

I am a real sucker for some of the old Republic films--particularly the wartime films. Yes, I know they are NOT artistic masterpieces and the movies of course take advantage of many cinema clichés BUT they also deliver wonderful, if somewhat low-brow, entertainment.

Despite John Wayne being billed as the lead, he is in fact somewhat of a background figure during much of the movie. Instead, the main focus seems to be on the incredibly glib and cocky John Carrol. He's a jerk and he's terribly selfish but boy can he fly. And, Wayne, being an old pal of Carrol's knows that down deep Carrol will prove himself in the end.

Along the way, we are treated to a liberal dose of the nobility of our Chinese comrades in arms as well as the inherent decency of our volunteer pilots. While all basically true, it has all the expected touches of a WWII American propaganda film. For me, that's not really a bad thing, as this film and others like it succeed in being great entertainment. In fact, because of this, I have seen this film several times. It's not exactly deep or sophisticated, but sometimes we NEED a film we can just enjoy and not think too deeply about.

Yes, this is a second-rate John Wayne war film (which probably makes it a third or fourth-rate movie for some). Its story resembles a Pat O'Brien/James Cagney military actioner of the thirties, or maybe even the Spencer Tracy/Clark Gable flight movie TEST PILOT, more than it does the real story of the Flying Tigers. Wayne plays the paternalistic leader always telling the hot shot to play with the team; ironically, it was because the Army Air Force wanted to deflate the cowboy attitude and emphasize team work that the real Flying Tigers got disbanded. Despite the corn and cliches, Wayne and the movie are lovable. Like all war movies made between 1942-1945, it's also an eye-opening time capsule.